Swallowing hard, nervous energy driving him to his feet, Douglas hit the green button before it could go to voicemail. "Hey, Mom."
"TJ—or Douglas, it's harder to tell on the phone—as long as the two of you are in the same place. Are you all right?" Elaine's voice rambled over the phone.
"We're safe, Mom. And it's Dougie."
"Carolyn Peterson just called me asking if we'd heard from you—something about TJ feeling sick, and you two leaving early to stay at your grandmother's. But she's still here with us, and nobody was picking up on the house phone, and with cell service so spotty—"
"I promise, Mom, we're okay. TJ's phone must somehow get better reception than mine." He threw a wry glanced at TJ, who snickered. "We tried to go to Nana's, except we couldn't find a spare key to get in, so we didn't know what to do, and…well, thought we could make it home, with the city shutting down local roads."
"Oh my God, Douglas, we would have rather dealt with the ticket to get you back to the Petersons—they tried to drive here anyway, Bud, I'll tell you guys in a minute." Their mom alternated talking over the phone and updating everyone in the room with her. "Please tell me you haven't been stuck in the snow all night. This is exactly why I vouched for anything except sports cars. Don't look at me like that Bud, I was perfectly right!"
"No, we got to a rest stop. Well, I mean, we slid into a snow drift at the rest stop, so we couldn't get anywhere after that, but the car's fine, we got inside fine. You can be happy that everything you made us keep in the trunk came in handy."
"And how's TJ?"
"Hi, Mom," TJ chimed in hoarsely.
"It's been a rough few hours. Whatever it was, bad food, stomach bug, it better not be something I can catch after taking care of him all night," Douglas deflected, though his look was more pointed at his brother this time. "He's doing a little better, though."
"I still want you to call 911, if you haven't already, just to be safe. I don't know how long it'll be before we can try to get to you. The major roads are supposed to be okay for the most part, it's the rest that might be a problem. And they'll be better equipped to get the car unstuck in any case. You took the 95, right?"
"Yeah, it's that tiny rest stop just past the border. And don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Just because they don't have to shut down the interstate for you anymore doesn't mean you have to jump in the middle of every little thing that happens."
"That's what parents do, Douglas. Especially when the 'little thing' could have gone a lot worse. Keep us updated. We love you both."
Douglas sighed as he lowered the phone.
"You lied to her," TJ commented.
"Newsflash, not the first time."
"I mean you've really gone out of your way to avoid mentioning drugs or picking me up at the club, to anyone."
"Maybe I thought the fact that she was already freaked out about letting us go to the party and then drive ourselves home was enough reason to avoid scaring her more. The Petersons just didn't need to know. It's not like I want to broadcast that you do this stuff. And besides, what's to say it wasn't just a really bad stomach bug?"
The expression on TJ's face floated somewhere between gratitude, guilt, and just plain relief. "I really am sorry I dragged out this whole mess."
"I would do anything I could for you, you know that."
"I know. I just wish you didn't have to." TJ settled back down, apparently drained for the moment. Douglas punched in the numbers for the next call.
"911, what is your emergency?" said the female voice on the other end.
"Hi, my brother and I were at a party last night, and we tried to get home before the storm got too bad, but we got stranded."
"Are you in a safe place?"
"Yeah, we got to the rest stop off of 95 going south, so we've had food, water, heat, no problem. It's the one by the Virginia state line. Our car's probably buried at this point. But my brother got sick, we don't know if it was something he ate or what. We got a hold of our parents, and they wanted us to call you."
"A good suggestion on your parents' part, we want as many people as possible to stay off the roads for the time being. Can you tell me how your brother is doing right now?"
"He's awake, a lot better than he was last night. Hasn't tried to eat or drink much for a few hours."
TJ threw him a petulant look.
"Was he throwing up, or anything else?"
"Pretty much everything," Douglas told her, mouthing 'Sorry' to TJ. "He was really shaky, maybe dizzy, felt like he had a fever for a while."
"Did he ever lose consciousness?"
"He dozed off some, and we just got a couple hours of sleep. No passing out or anything, though."
"Keep trying to push fluids, even small amounts at a time, but don't force it if he can't keep anything down. And I know it sounds backwards, but try to keep him as warm as possible. I'll pass what you've told me on to the EMTs. We'll get help to you as soon as possible, okay? Do you need me to stay on the line?"
"How long do you think it'll take?"
"The nearest station is about 20 minutes away from you, probably a bit longer to get through the snow. Highway Patrol is going to be closer to an hour to get a tow truck."
"I think we'll be okay until then. Like I said, he seems to be doing better."
"Can I get a phone number in case the officers or EMTs need to reach you?"
Douglas gave her both cell phone numbers, and they hung up. "Well, now we wait some more. How's your stomach feeling? Think you could try some more water?"
"I can work on it. Did you really have to share the details?"
"It's called an emergency for a reason, I think they need to know how bad it is if they're sending an ambulance out to you. Just work on the water thing, we're almost out of here. I for one will take a moment to relish the idea of making it to an actual bed…" He realized he had spent the entirety of both conversations on his feet pacing, and sat down again.